Eastern State Penitentiary
- Dean at Eastern State Penitentiary
Visiting Eastern State penitentiary (ESP) is a sort of overwhelming experience. Like any tourist attraction, there are guided tours, headsets with an at-your-pace tour narrated by Steve Buscemi, or the freedom to roam about the premises as you wish. After we paid and received the fashionable headsets we strolled through the massive abandoned structure. I began listening to the headset tour while keeping an eye on Dean, stepping onto the yard before we even entered the first cell block was overwhelming. I was surrounded by these immense structures that represent penitence and suffering, it was palpable like a lump in my throat.
From a photographic standpoint, Dean really couldn’t take a bad shot in the entire place; so much history, lives changed. Listening to the recorded tour became lame to me. I enjoyed the history but found it somewhat canned and I like to imagine what may have happened years ago in Capone’s cell. This particular prison opened in 1829, closed in 1971 and held 1,700 prisoners at one time, originally it was built to hold only 250. 
Among the peeling paint, crumbling walls and rusted metal bars, we captured a ton of photos. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much we could do about the point of view we took the photos from. The photos that Dean did take represent his artistic expression and the overall feel of the prison. A lot of the areas we’re blocked off, so I felt limited, I could only imagine how Dean felt. He wanted to capture the dark, moody feel of the old prison so he used the ever so detailed HDR technique. The results turned out beautifully, showing lots of amazing detail and color. We had the chance to look at some other photographs that were taken and we think ours have a bit more flair. They can all be viewed on Dean’s Flickr page, the bigger the better.
Oh yeah, then we bolted off to see The Dead! Whole other topic!
